I thought 1 more was reasonable, then maybe another one over the course of Crosby and Malkin's career here. Winning a cup is hard, a lot of things have to go right but a lot of things can and do go wrong during the playoffs through no fault of anyone.

No one has mentioned '10-'11. Yea, the monumental injuries did the Pens in that year. Now I know injuries hurt, and can take you out of contention, but Sid was having his career year that year. At the midpoint of that year he was 31G, 31A = 62 points. That transalted to a 62G, 62A = 124 points. And of course Geno went down that year also. Can't tell me that they weren't a true cup contender on 1/1/11. Then, well you know.

Big Easy Pens Fan wrote:No one has mentioned '10-'11. Yea, the monumental injuries did the Pens in that year. Now I know injuries hurt, and can take you out of contention, but Sid was having his career year that year. At the midpoint of that year he was 31G, 31A = 62 points. That transalted to a 62G, 62A = 124 points. And of course Geno went down that year also. Can't tell me that they weren't a true cup contender on 1/1/11. Then, well you know.

I would never EXPECT (dirtiest word in sports fandom) a Cup, especially because of just how difficult winning 16 NHL playoff games is. But if you had told me after 2009 that the Pens would not return to the Finals until at least 2015, I'd have been pretty surprised. 2011 was our best setup until Sid got knocked out. I thought last year's team was set up for it but they went belly-up against Boston. Hell, I thought with the right breaks, this year's team could certainly get to the Finals, and with a 3-1 lead against the Rangers, I was liking the opportunities that were ahead. And of course, now the Habs beat the Bruins and I would have really liked the Pens against them. Oh well, we'll see what next year brings.

None. It takes way too much luck to win a cup. Only one team finds that magic a year. Playing DA, The worst case scenario for this young core was to win one early. The hunger does not exist because they can always fall back on...we already won one.

THOUGH I said this, I thought in 2008 we peaked a little early because while the guys like Sid and Geno were still relative babies, you really inflated the contracts of some of the guys to keep like Orpik.

Chicago's likely to capture their 3rd recent cup this year. Had the Pens built properly, and made different coaching decisions we would have been competing neck and neck with them. It's a game of chance; and after DB won his first cup fresh into a new coaching start who would have guessed that his future playoff runs would be disastrous? Coaching change should have happened last summer; a lot of people were calling for it. When you don't make the finals with Crosby/Malkin/Iginla/Kunitz/Neal, something is wrong.

Combine that with some extremely bad injury luck, shaky and unpredictable goaltending (previously), and a team that went soff...hindsight is 20/20. That all being said, it's not too late provided the right pieces are added and the weak pieces both in management and on the roster are addressed. No doubt the time is dwindling now. There can't be a "4 year plan," for rebuilding. The window is closing quickly.

blackhawks would have humiliated us last year and this year. oh wait, they did outdoors. not even close between that team and our team, not even close. regardless of what reason crosby was unhappy, you still go out and try your best and i didn't see that from him at all. give malkin the C.

In 2009, it looked like the sky was the limit. The Pens seemed poised to own what was then still the new NHL. Just like the Pens appeared to be in 93. But not everything goes according to script.

Things changed. Other stars emerged around the league. Other teams became young and fast. Suddenly, the Pens had some peers. Officiating changed. The game evolved. Other teams recognized the Pens as a roadblock to success and built teams and systems to beat them. That's a challenge success brings.

None of this is remarkable. Winning is hard. One injury--one play--can derail a season for any team. Winning always brings burdens that makes further winning even harder.

If DB has been the problem all of these years, the Pens are still fortunate to have had him when they did because they won. MT was done here. We're lucky to have that experience as fans. One cup is worth 5 years of futility. And it's been pretty good futility, overall.

bdevido wrote:blackhawks would have humiliated us last year and this year. oh wait, they did outdoors. not even close between that team and our team, not even close. regardless of what reason crosby was unhappy, you still go out and try your best and i didn't see that from him at all. give malkin the C.

Yes giving Malkin the C will solve all of this teams issues from coaching, drafting, and desire of the players wanting to win.